Brief:Throughout history the sun has played an important role to both our planet's existence and to ancient folklore and mythology. Some ancient cultures believe the sun is a watchful eye of a god in the sky, while others may view the sun as a symbol of life and reincarnation. Many ancient cultures have built monuments that are used as a place of worship or celebration to the sun in some way, including Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Gisa. This week I would like your creativity to center around the sun, and design a creature that plays an important role based upon the sun!

Round Requirements:
-This creature is somehow connected with the sun
-it's role must suit the word 'Guardian' in some way
-optional: You may depict an ancient monument built in honour of this creature. This is not required to make the poll

Deadline:Wednesday August 27, 11:59:59 PM EST (GMT -4)

This thread is the WIPs Thread, meant for uploading any wips, sketches, and ideas for your creature's concepts, as well as any crits, comments, reference images, and discussions relating to the topic! Please submit your final entries to the Finals Thread which can be found here, otherwise your entry will not be included into the poll:http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...09#post3850209

If you have any ideas for a future topic for Creature of the Week you are free to add your own ideas and suggestions to the Topic Suggestion Thread!

If your looking for a little inspiration for your designs, we have a good Site Reference Thread available!

When I read the brief I remembered how in Norse mythology when ragnarok and the end of time comes, a giant wolf will devour the sun. So I thought the sun guardian creature could protect the sun during Ragnarok. I looked up some breeds of dogs that shepherds use against wolves for inspiration. I'd like to try and have a nice rendering of what I started here, but I have the feeling it's beyond my skill level. We'll see...

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What I have so far is just an idea, I don't know if I am going to do it yet, I still have a few more ideas in mind. I went with an Aztec Sun Guardian who is summoned if you find the missing sun rod( the thing on top of the temple ) I still have more I want to add to this so this is not completely thought out yet, but hey after school tomorrow I have a whole weekend to do it. This is going to be fun.

Well this is my first time posting something in the challenge section But this topic sounded too cool not to post something. At first I also thought of sacred cows somehow, but as I did some rough sketches I decided to go for a more sphinx like creature because I think it represents better the power of the sun. Hopefully I will find the time to finish it.

Here's my take on the Sun Guardian, not sure if I'm going to finish since this one has an early deadline.

My idea was a bull/elk-like creature, like an alpha or bull of a herd. People worship or consider this animal as sacred because of how its horns frames the sun when it calls out to its herd at first light. The horns in particular are magnificent and mysterious as it is said that no two horns are alike and the patterns foretell feelings of the sun god. The weight also burdens the creature and eventually causes its own death. The creature's death in particular can be noted as another reason people consider this animal sacred, as the bull is near its death, with all the strength it can muster will lift its head and face the East where the sun rises, and adding to that again is the posture of the creature, as kneeling and bowing to the sun. Death of the creature also symbolizes an era of a new Sun Priestess and new sacred bull. Worshipers take the horns of the dead sacred beast and use it to replace the altar/throne of the new priestess.

Some progress on my Guardian. Can someone tell me if the colors look pale because they look a lot more vibrant on my tablet, if not I just might have to play around with my computer screen settings. Thanks

BToal: Your Sun Guardian is venturing a bit too close to being a character, try to make some adjustments to make it appear more like a creature. Don't forget to have a good look at the rules for Creature of the Week, it should outline what the goal is for this activity.

Art is not about competing against others and being better than everyone else, but it is about competing against yourself and discovering your greatest potential!

MmmK. My concept is probably pretty far out there, but am really digging it, so let me know if it's too far out there, or on point and I can keep chugging along.

So, thinking of how big the sun is, I figured whatever was guarding it would have to be pretty big too, like REALLY BIG. But what or who would it be guarding it from? Probably something else pretty dang big. Like Cthulu, eater of worlds big. I was also thinking of how the universe is actually a very dark place and if something was living out there guarding the sun, it would be adapted to that, which got me thinking about angler fish and other deep sea critters--just scary space. So, I'm thinking it's this poor old guy's job to make sure the sun doesn't go out, and nobody gets a hold of it because well, it belongs to it, they are one and the same, for eternity.

I won't be including any monuments with this guy. But, I would like to think that there's a cult out there somewhere who prays to the great guardian, keeper of the sun, oh ancient of ancients.